An Election Reflection - 2013

Now that it’s all over, I’m left to ponder the issue of targeted demographics.  Mainly because I have a pile of trash to throw away after the election that is spilling all over on my counter.   You see, I’m a targeted demographic in a hotly contested area.   The Commonwealth of Virginia just finished a heavily contested Governor’s race between two candidates and an extra.  You could say, two heirs and a spare, but Sarvis wasn't even that good.  As a targeted demographic, I got zero campaign mailings for the Governor’s race.  Zippedy-do-da Zero.  Which makes it even more interesting given the fact that Ken Cuccinelli almost won even though Terry “I buy my way to power” McAwful or Terry "I invest in dead people" McAwful reportedly outspent him by $15 million.   Think about that one.  Terry McAwful’s campaign threw around $15 million more than the Cooch to buy the election and I didn't get a single campaign mailing.  There’s some sort of message there.  I’m not sure what.   I’m sure the Data Mining Gods at the NSA have already reported to McAwful that I attended the last two LPACs.  Best not waste a mailer on her.  You know, because when you are throwing around $15 million spare ones, you can't spare a dime.  

When it comes down to the Vice/Assistant/Lieutenant whatever’s position that used to be occupied by serial whiner and foot stomper Bill Bolling, a man that absolutely no one outside of Richmond has ever heard of, I got again, zero campaign mailers.   For the hotly contested and still not called, Attorney General’s race, I got two mailers, both from the “Southern Progress Action Fund.”   One said in screaming large letters, “Mark Obenshain.  Wrong for Women.  Wrong for Virginia.”   The other one said, “It’s Simple:  If Mark Obenshain Wins… Virginia Women LOSE!”   Really?  Lose what?   According to the mailers….  Mark Obenshain wants to steal all American women’s birth control… or all Virginia women or their birth control… or something.  I dunno.  As a woman this mailer assumes I’m too stupid to read through their agenda.  I loose! Or Lose!  Or something.  But what I do know is that the Southern Progress Action Fund is a brand new Democratic Super PAC, dedicated to getting Southerners out to vote their way.  Missed that demographic as well folks.  As any inbred Fauquier County resident will tell you, that woman is a Yankee. 

The real spamming of my mail box came from the local state delegates race between Michael Webert and Colin Harris.   I've already covered that here and here.  But I have more thoughts I’d like to share now that its all over.  First off, while the fake Camo and Guns ad was truly my favorite, a hot and close second is dear “Penny P.”  Penny is a true winner.

First off, I might be a little harsh here, but is birth control really "Penny P."'s primary concern in life?   Perhaps Social Security might rank higher on her list?  I'm just spit-balling here but I'm willing to bet the farm that there just might be something else in "Penny P."'s life that ranks just a tad higher than this.   What this really tells me is that someone failed "Stock Photo Selection 101" when they made this ad.   If they wanted "Penny P." to truly be believable they should have selected a photo of some anonymous 20 something young hottie who maybe is truly scared to death that she was knocked up by last nights encounter in the bar and birth control is front and center in her hungover mind.   Now the Photoshop pro who put this together gets some kudos for selecting a photo of a woman who truly looks seriously unhappy, but birth control?  Nah. Not buying it. 

What is truly frightening is that Harris actually won just over 1/3rd of the vote with his blizzard of campaign mailers claiming that Michael Webert hates women and wants to steal all our birth control.   What does it say for the voters of Fauquier County that he actually got this many votes when he had no real platform of his own and no job experience?  Harris pulled in $166,914 (as of 10/23/2013) slightly over half was from out of state sources.  As I wrote about earlier, actually over 70% of his donors were from Maryland, Washington DC, and California, but a massive donation from the Democratic Party of Virginia tilted his donation numbers back to make it look like he received more Virginia support than he really did.   Webert who got a last minute fundraising boost when all the Harris attack ads started surfacing, raised $146,955 (as of 10/23/2013), the vast majority of which came from in-state sources.  As of the last totals available Webert still had over $31,000 still on hand while Harris had spent almost all he had.  It was nice to see that Harris didn't win, but he still managed to buy a hell of a lot of votes.  

I can't believe its 2013 and the Democratic Party still can't lie their way out of a paper bag but they successfully get voters anyway.  What does it take to inject critical thinking skills back into Americans?